The present invention relates to an apparatus for destroying an anchor chain or moored mine, which includes a mine sweeping unit and a ballast unit releasably connected therewith as well as a recess or receptacle for receiving an anchor chain or mine mooring and a clamping device for gripping the mine mooring.
Such mine sweeping devices and methods connected with it for combatting mooring mines are also disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,120,246 and in the article entitled, "Minenbekampfung" by W. Flume, published in the periodical "Wehrtechnik", 1983, No. 10, pages 66 and 67. These devices separate the moored mine from its anchorage in a body of water by severing the mine mooring which establishes a connection between the mine body and the mine seat, allowing the mine body to float to the surface of the water. Customarily, once the mine body has floated to the surface, it is destroyed by firing at it.
This method has the drawbacks that it is generally not employable at night, and that the mine is not destroyed directly by the sweeping device, but only after it appears on the surface.
Such a device for combatting moored mines is disclosed, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 4,696,234, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference. In this device, a gripper grips the mine mooring and a buoyancy-producing means causes the device to move upward on the chain to contact and explode the main body.
Moreover, with all of these prior art devices, the mine seat at the bottom of the water, that is the anchorage for the moored mine, remains intact, and there arises the problem that, during later renewed mine sweeping or hunting operations, the mine seat is detected as a mine-like object which therefore must be newly identified, although this is in fact an unnecessary procedure.